


On the Ground, Lost and Found, Understand Me

by FountainPen



Category: Paranatural (Webcomic)
Genre: Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Kinda, angst at first, either way isaac feels bad and max cheers him up, google docs says i'm at 1014, i guess, isaac is sad and i won't stand for that, let me live okay, listen to buttercup by hippocampus while you read this for the full Experience, okay the word count is being weird, shred eagle is watched, supportive Max, they're friends but if u want you can read it as shippy, trust me - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-06
Updated: 2018-07-06
Packaged: 2019-06-06 02:20:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15184616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FountainPen/pseuds/FountainPen
Summary: Isaac feels terrible about what he said to his friends during the whole Hijack thing, and doesn't know how to tell them he's sorry, luckily, Max is here with tapes from his favorite show, prepared to cheer up everyone's favorite weather teen.





	On the Ground, Lost and Found, Understand Me

 

Isaac went home that day with a vague feeling of numbed sadness hanging over him. He’d settled into a sort of funk ever since the Hijack thing- well, since he blew up at his friends. Isaac felt terrible, but he didn’t know how to say it. He wanted them to apologize for shutting him out all the time, but he didn’t want them to hate him. So Isaac did the only thing he could, that being quietly stew in his own mixed emotions until his next explosion.

 

But to be honest, Isaac didn’t want to explode again. It always hurt him- and those around him, and it just left him tired. Isaac was tired. Which left him sitting alone in his room at twilight, staring out his window and trying to pretend he hadn’t gone and screwed everything up _again._

 

Isaac hadn’t shown up to the club for a couple of days, how could he? Isaac had completely ruined everything, and it wasn’t fair of him to go and act like he hadn’t done anything wrong. So instead of being ridiculed by his peers, Isaac went home and ridiculed himself.

 

It was quiet, other than the bugs and frogs chirping, the occasional car driving by highlight that no cars were going to pulling into his driveway, as his parents were out of town on some business trip. _What a great way to spend his Friday night?_

 

That was Isaac’s line of thought as the face appeared in his window.

 

Now, Isaac was used to the supernatural, he was possessed for christ’s sake! But, he still refused to test fate with Bloody Mary, or any of those dumb games, and a face in the window you’re looking out of is enough to induce a more than girly shriek from a barely teenager alone in a big house for the night.

 

“ _Max!?_ ” Isaac hissed from the floor as Max pushed open Isaac’s window and fell inside. “What are you doing here!?”

 

“You’ve been acting weird all week, you haven’t even shown up to meetings for the club you convinced me to join, so I thought I’d stop by.” Max shrugged, dropping his bag on the floor.

 

“How did you even-”

 

“Izzy gave me your address.” Max interrupted. “I also came to say I’m sorry for not trying more to talk stuff out. I’m not the best at feelings, I’m twelve.”

 

“Wait… really?”

 

“Yeah, I was born-”

 

“You know what I mean, Max.”

 

“Yeah, sorry, reflex.” Max coughed.

 

“Figures.” Isaac snorted. “But- I’m sorry too, for not being a good friend. You had every right to be mad.”

 

“I wasn’t mad, and you weren’t being a bad friend,” Max reassured him. “You were just learning the ropes, is all.”

 

“Thanks, Max.”

 

“No problem buddy.”

 

“But uh, if that was all, why’d you bring your bag?” Isaac asked, gesturing to Max’s overstuffed backpack on the floor.

 

“Because, you’re feeling down, and I am here to show you the joys of Shred Eagle,” Max said.

 

“What?”

 

“The biggest influence on my childhood.”

 

“So I’m finally gonna know why you’re Like That?” Isaac asked, cracking a smile.

 

“Yup,” Max said. “You have a VHS player?”

 

“Uh- no? I don’t live in the nineties?”

 

“Well, fortunately for you, I’m always runnin’ in the nineties-”

 

“Stop that.”

 

“And brought one.”

 

“You brought an entire VHS player to my house, climbed up the tree next to my window, and are prepared to set up said VHS player in said house?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“You’re- you’re a nerd!?”

 

“No-”

 

“Yes.”

 

“No.”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Okay, I’m setting this up now!” Max shouted, and went to work on the TV in Isaac’s room.

 

“I’m taking that as a win, just so you know,” Isaac told him.

 

“Unacceptable.”

 

“No, you.”

 

“I am not doing this again, Zachary.”

 

“That’s not my name, Maxwell.”

 

“Is now, Zachary.”

 

“I will spray bottle you.”

 

“My apologies, Zachary.”

 

“Murder time.”

 

“Pacifist who?” Max grinned, before turning on the TV. “Okay banter over it’s Shred Eagle time.”

 

“Alright, but remind me to end your when we’re done,” Isaac replied, and the two boys sat down on Isaac’s bed, Max’s feet propped against the wall, and Isaac with his elbows hooked around a pillow, and they watched Shred Eagle. Max clarifying any questions Isaac had at first, but he quickly got used to the quirks of the show.

 

“Hey, Isaac?” Max asked during the fourth episode.

 

“Yeah?”

 

“You’ll come back to the club next week right?”

 

“I… I don’t know.”

 

“Why not?”

 

“I- I blew up at Izzy and Ed, and I don’t know if I could face them after that,” Isaac said, sighing.

 

“Sure you can,” Max said. “It’ll work out. Just come back, alright?”

 

“I don’t-”

 

“C’mon, you’ll never be able to make any progress in making up with them if you never try,” Max said.

 

“Well…”

 

“Besides, you’re the one who got me to join in the first place, and I refuse to go on missions without the possibility of a team with the name LightningRod.”

 

“Okay, I’ll come back,” Isaac said, laughing, and Max smiled, and turned back to the television screen.

 

It was hours later, after the last tape had been popped in, that the two began dozing off, eyes heavy and getting fuzzy around the edges. Isaac and Max were now both wrapped in blankets, both with a pillow under their chins, still facing the TV. THe shred eagle tape was almost finished, the day had been saved, the prize money won, and Shred was about to do his signature flip out of the frame that signaled the end of the episode.

 

Beside Isaac, Max was snoring softly, cap still on his head, albeit only held on by the side of his head against the pillow. Isaac was reminded that he now had a real friend, someone who was going to come to his house and climb through the window with a VHS player and some tapes for the sole purpose of cheering him up.

 

It was the most content Isaac had felt in a long time, and he had a feeling it was going to last.

 


End file.
